South Beach Update: South Padre, to be exact

Well, we made it!

And so, apparently, did the red tide.

As soon as we opened the car doors after pulling into the parking lot at Marisol, it started.  Coughing, choking, nearly gagging, we stumbled up to the apartment wondering what in tarnation was going on.  Sure enough, a local informed us as we picked up a few staple grocery items at the Blue Marlin IGA that it was “spores from the red tide.”  Or, as we learned on Wikipedia, scientists prefer to use the term “Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB)”.  Whatever it is, it’s no fun.

But despite the hacking, we are managing to have a great time.  We enjoyed a bright, sunny, warm day at the ocean, playing in the largest waves we’ve enjoyed in all our visits here.  As we quickly learned, not only does the “Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB)” make it hard for humans to breathe, it also makes it hard for the fish to breath.  To the point where they don’t.  And they die.  In large numbers.  And wash ashore.  We saw our first of many casualties as we set up our chairs oceanside:

Trey and Crisana were totally broken up about it:

But playing in the ocean always makes you feel better, even if it is a little cold at first:

Unfortunately, the way the calendar fell this year, we missed both Roar by the Shore and Sandcastle Days.  Since Roar by the Shore is a bike rally, we aren’t too sad about coming in on the tail end of it, but we were very disappointed to miss the sandcastles.  That is always one of the things we look forward to each year.  We did walk down to the Sheraton to see if any were still standing, but we only found a couple of sculptures left:

We thought this one looked an awful lot like Clifford, despite him being neither big nor red.  And being made of sand, not fur.  At least Crisana could “pet” this one.  And then there was Tide-Eyes…the great sea sandserpent, rising out of the deep….

Trey decided it was better to be behind him than in front.  I guess people are harder to swallow that way.

So with a little dip in the ocean, we headed back to our neck of the woods:

After a few more hours of fun in the sun, it was time to head out for dinner.  We traveled across the causeway to Port Isabel to enjoy the fun and ambience of Pirate’s Landing, one of our perennial favorites.  You gotta love a place where you can dine with pirates, especially pirates with 4 arms like this one:

Or pirates with really cute, small faces, like this one:

Or really pretty pirates in sundresses, like this one (but beware, I hear she has a mean left uppercut):

Beach time, sun time, sandcastle time, family time, pirate time.  All in all, I’d say our first day at Padre was a success.  If only I could be this productive all the time.